"This Commandment [the seventh] also
implies an obligation to sympathise with the poor and needy, and to
relieve their difficulties and distresses by our means and good
offices. Concerning this subject, which cannot be insisted on too
often or too strongly, the pastor will find abundant matter to enrich
his discourses in the works of St. Cyprian, St. John Chrysostom, St.
Gregory Nazianzen, and other eminent writers on almsdeeds.

Inducements To Practice
Almsgiving

The pastor, therefore, should encourage the
faithful to be willing and anxious to assist those who have to depend
on charity, and should make them realise the great necessity of
giving alms and of being really and practically liberal to the poor,
by reminding them that on the last day God will condemn and consign
to eternal fires those who have omitted and neglected the duty of
almsgiving, while on the contrary He will praise and introduce into
His heavenly country those who have exercised mercy towards the poor.
These two sentences have been already pronounced by the lips of
Christ the Lord: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom
prepared for you; and: Depart front me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire.

Priests should also cite those texts which
are calculated to persuade (to the performance of this important
duty): Give and it shall be given to you. They should dwell on the
promise of God, the richest and most abundant that can be conceived:
There is no man who hath left house, or brethren, etc., that shall
not receive an hundred times as much now in this time and in the
world to come life everlasting; and he should add these words of our
Lord: Make unto yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that
when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting
dwellings.

Ways Of Giving Alms

They should also explain the parts of this
necessary duty, so that whoever is unable to give may at least lend
to the poor what they need to sustain life, according to the command
of Christ our Lord: Lend, hoping for nothing thereby. The happiness
of doing this is thus expressed by holy David: Acceptable is the man
that showeth mercy and lendeth.

But if we are not able to give to those who
must depend on the charity of others for their sustenance, it is an
act of Christian piety, as well as a means of avoiding idleness, to
procure by our labor and industry what is necessary for the relief of
the poor. To this the Apostle exhorts all by his own example. For
yourselves, he says to the Thessalonians, know how you ought to
imitate us; and again, writing to the same people: Use your endeavour
to be quiet, and that you do your own business, and work with your
own, hands, as we commanded you; and to the Ephesians: He that stole,
let him steal no more; but rather let him labour working with his
hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to
him that suffereth need.'

Frugality Is Enjoined

We should also practice frugality and draw
sparingly on the kindness of others, that we may not be burden or a
trouble to them. The exercise of considerateness is conspicuous in
all the Apostles, but preeminently so in St. Paul. Writing to the
Thessalonians he says: You remember, brethren, our labour and toil;
working night and day lest we should be chargeable to any of you, we
preached amongst you the gospel of God. And in another place the same
Apostle says: In labour and in toil, we worked night and day, lest we
should be burdensome to any of you.

Sanction Of This Commandment

The Punishment Of Its
Violation

To inspire the faithful with an abhorrence of
all infamous sins against this Commandment, the pastor should have
recourse to the Prophets and the other inspired writers, to show the
detestation in which God holds the crimes of theft and robbery, and
the awful threats which He denounces against their perpetrators. Hear
this, exclaims the Prophet Amos, you that crush the poor, and make
the needy of the land to fail, saying: "When will the month be over,
and we shall sell our wares, and the sabbath, and we shall open the
corn; that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sickle, and
may convey in deceitful balances? Many passages of the same kind may
be found in Jeremias, Proverbs,' and Ecclesiasticus. Indeed it cannot
be doubted that such crimes are the seeds from which have sprung in
great part the evils which in our times oppress society.

The Reward Of Observing This
Commandment

That Christians may accustom themselves to
those acts of generosity and kindness towards the poor and the needy
which are inculcated by the second part of this Commandment, the
pastor should place before them those ample rewards which God
promises in this life and in the next to the beneficent and the
bountiful."

For the entire text that explains our duty under the seventh
commandment, in the catechism of Trent, click here.